Evolving beyond the old feudal divisions modern Senegalese society is creating new divisions, principally between the French and Senegalese bourgeoisies on the one hand and the young urban proletariat and the peasantry on the other hand. Irreconcilable class divisions and harsh economic exploitation create misery for the urban and rural workers. Yet the solutions of the leading Senegalese writer/politicians do not exceed the petty bourgeois limitations of nationalism and reformism.Nationalism, as an instrument for change or liberation, in all of its manifestations, from the pseudo-nationalism of Africa's "yes-men" (Leopold Sedar Senghor), conservative cultural nationalism (Birago Diop) and radical cultural nationalism (Cheikh Anta Diop) to Islamic nationalism (Cheikh Hamidou Kane) and populism (Ousmane Sembene), is in direct conflict with social revolution and the final overthrow of capitalism. This observation, unadorned, unvarnished, and historically misunderstood, forms the basic theme of this work.While each variety of nationalism has its progressive aspects, nationalists will inevitably end up on the opposite side of the barricades, opposing revolutionary socialists. The nationlism/social revolution contradiction is an elementary one, yet, as recent international events have shown, it has proven to be exceedingly complex in its historical manifestations. This thesis, in an analysis of Senegalese writer/politicians, seeks to further document the ultimate tragedy, for workers and peasants, of capitulation to nationalism and subsequent failure to struggle unequivocally for social revolution. As an alternative to the misleadership of the Senegalese writer/politicians this work presents an application of Leon Trotsky's theory of "permanent revolution" with no reliance on the national bourgeoisie.